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Fan-Atic, v. 2, issue 2, whole no. 5, September 1941

Page 10

BUG-EYED MONTERS FOR BRITICHERS
   by Harry Warner, Jr.

If you were cut off from all the professional and fan magazines, you'd feel pretty bad about it wouldn't you? Don't argue; even if you think you wouldn't miss them, you would. You wouldn't get them now if you didn't want them.
But World War II has cut a lot of stf fans off from the magazines. In England, Canada, and Australia, emergency restrictions forbid the importing of pulp magazines published abroad - meaning in the U.S. Further, money may not be sent out of these countries except for something accepted by the authorities as a "good cause". The buying of stf magazines would never, never, be considered as such.
This is probably an old story to most of you, Several fans have gone so far as to form a British Science Fiction War Relief Society, which is a fine thing, and it are to be found in a recent AMAZING, I believe, and probably it'll have gotten plenty of publicity elsewhere by the time you read this.
However, most of the active fans are collectors also, and want to keep the magazines they buy. If you fall into this class - and I think most of the readers of FAN-ATIC do ((Right, Harry.)) - you probably hesitate from buying in addition to the magazines for your own collection others to be sent abroad with no return to you. It isn't selfieshness; it's merely that most of us have a hard time trying to keep up with the prozines ourselves, and just don't feel we can spare the dough to buy magazines for others. If we were to get something back for those we send away, we might feel more like doing it. That's horribly materialistic and bad-sounding, but true.
So, if you fall into that class, there's still trading to rely on. That's the purpose of this article: to give some dope on how to go about it. Some of these things were mentioned in a SPACEWAYS editorial some time back, and I believe about a half-dozen fans in all took it to heart and are now happily swapping. But there are still about a million fans, mostly in England but others in Canada and Australia, with their toungues hanging out for American stf. They're willing to send you almost anything of equal value you want from over there. It's practically the only way they have of obtaining the stuff they want; and to your advantage, you can get this way British stf at miraculous prices.
As a few examples: in England, there are far more cheap editions of stf books and second-hand and remainders of expensive editions seems easier to obtain. Several dozen of the very best of all stf and fantasy stories are published in sixpenny editions, paper-back, but neat, substantial, and complete. They resemble somewhat our Pocket Book, 25c reprints. In this format can be had such famous stories as Cabell's "Jurgen", Wells's "Shape of Things To Come" in two volumes, Stapledon's "Last and First Men", Chesterton's "Mas Who Was Thursday", Beresford's "Hampdenshire Wonder", and many others. Since they're available all over England, fans there can easily obtain them to send to you. They can't find, of course, specific stories in second-hand and remainder form so easily, but you'll get huge bargains there, too, regardless of what you receive. For my part, here are a few examples of cloth-bound, high-priced books I've gotten from England lately and their cost to me in trade exchange: "The Birds", Frank Baker, 25c--brand-new copy, 350 pages; "Odd John", Stapledon, 25c; "Hopkins Manuscript", Sherriff; "The Approaching Storm", Tillyard; "One Sane Man", Beeding--20c each. You'd find that any dealer in stf books would charge at least double for these books, if you bothered to check up. Then too, there is TALES OF WONDER, which you can get in trade for its cover price of 25c; it's almost invariably sold at 50c over here. There is a series of magazines which so far included three or four all-fantasy issues; two or three American prozines have British Reprint Editions which are scarce in this country; and so it goes.
In Australia, it's not quite such a fertile field for trading since there are no prozines, few books available, and stringent export and import restrictions. Nevertheless, if you are collecting fanzines, the boys down there will be most happy to send Australian creations, which haven't seen much circulation in this country, for the value of anything you may send them.
                       (Continued on next page.)

Saving...

BUG-EYED MONTERS FOR BRITICHERS by Harry Warner, Jr. If you were cut off from all the professional and fan magazines, you'd feel pretty bad about it wouldn't you? Don't argue; even if you think you wouldn't miss them, you would. You wouldn't get them now if you didn't want them. But World War II has cut a lot of stf fans off from the magazines. In England, Canada, and Australia, emergency restrictions forbid the importing of pulp magazines published abroad - meaning in the U.S. Further, money may not be sent out of these countries except for something accepted by the authorities as a "good cause". The buying of stf magazines would never, never, be considered as such. This is probably an old story to most of you, Several fans have gone so far as to form a British Science Fiction War Relief Society, which is a fine thing, and it are to be found in a recent AMAZING, I believe, and probably it'll have gotten plenty of publicity elsewhere by the time you read this. However, most of the active fans are collectors also, and want to keep the magazines they buy. If you fall into this class - and I think most of the readers of FAN-ATIC do ((Right, Harry.)) - you probably hesitate from buying in addition to the magazines for your own collection others to be sent abroad with no return to you. It isn't selfieshness; it's merely that most of us have a hard time trying to keep up with the prozines ourselves, and just don't feel we can spare the dough to buy magazines for others. If we were to get something back for those we send away, we might feel more like doing it. That's horribly materialistic and bad-sounding, but true. So, if you fall into that class, there's still trading to rely on. That's the purpose of this article: to give some dope on how to go about it. Some of these things were mentioned in a SPACEWAYS editorial some time back, and I believe about a half-dozen fans in all took it to heart and are now happily swapping. But there are still about a million fans, mostly in England but others in Canada and Australia, with their toungues hanging out for American stf. They're willing to send you almost anything of equal value you want from over there. It's practically the only way they have of obtaining the stuff they want; and to your advantage, you can get this way British stf at miraculous prices. As a few examples: in England, there are far more cheap editions of stf books and second-hand and remainders of expensive editions seems easier to obtain. Several dozen of the very best of all stf and fantasy stories are published in sixpenny editions, paper-back, but neat, substantial, and complete. They resemble somewhat our Pocket Book, 25c reprints. In this format can be had such famous stories as Cabell's "Jurgen", Wells's "Shape of Things To Come" in two volumes, Stapledon's "Last and First Men", Chesterton's "Mas Who Was Thursday", Beresford's "Hampdenshire Wonder", and many others. Since they're available all over England, fans there can easily obtain them to send to you. They can't find, of course, specific stories in second-hand and remainder form so easily, but you'll get huge bargains there, too, regardless of what you receive. For my part, here are a few examples of cloth-bound, high-priced books I've gotten from England lately and their cost to me in trade exchange: "The Birds", Frank Baker, 25c--brand-new copy, 350 pages; "Odd John", Stapledon, 25c; "Hopkins Manuscript", Sherriff; "The Approaching Storm", Tillyard; "One Sane Man", Beeding--20c each. You'd find that any dealer in stf books would charge at least double for these books, if you bothered to check up. Then too, there is TALES OF WONDER, which you can get in trade for its cover price of 25c; it's almost invariably sold at 50c over here. There is a series of magazines which so far included three or four all-fantasy issues; two or three American prozines have British Reprint Editions which are scarce in this country; and so it goes. In Australia, it's not quite such a fertile field for trading since there are no prozines, few books available, and stringent export and import restrictions. Nevertheless, if you are collecting fanzines, the boys down there will be most happy to send Australian creations, which haven't seen much circulation in this country, for the value of anything you may send them. (Continued on next page.)